Changing Culture to Change the World: Honoring the Warrior Spirit of Nelson Mandela

I am so very grateful tonight. I am grateful for the opportunities to live, breathe, love, fight, and grow within a society where I am free from the physical chains that have bound my ancestors throughout time. The release from the physical ties that bound us has provided us with the momentum to fight the mental and emotional chains that still exist within the shadows of society and within our collective cultural schema.

Today Nelson Mandela passed away and moved on to rest in the land of the ancestors, in the arms of the divine. And as I am sad today, it is hard to be sad when his life reminds me of the incredible sacrifices others have made for me to be able to be who I am today. It is on the shoulders of the ancestors that I stand, and I am so very honored to live in a world that cultivated the incredible spirits of people like Nelson Mandela, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Joy DeGruy, Michelle Alexander, Little Bobby Hutton, Bobby Seal, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Malcolm, Martin, and so many more that are known to us and unknown; the slaves with no name, the activists, and the revolutionaries.

What a beautiful thing to look back upon the faces of the brave, and know that I have been gifted this chance at life because of those who’ve been willing to lay their lives in front of the bullet for justice.

A celebration of life is the gift that Mandela left, a gift he often was not able to enjoy for himself because he was too busy changing the world.

And so tonight I light up my altar in honor of a true culture changer, a true warrior, a visionary, activist, and divine spirit. I am so forever grateful for the world Nelson Mandela, and others like him, crafted for me.

Flame of the candle illuminates a glow of hope

A spark of hope that lights a vision of love.

Beyond the breath of life, your sacrifice has fueled change for humanity

Touching the hearts of many.

Your fight created life for others, becoming the soil where dreams took root.

In the darkness of night your light of justice has inspired the hearts of the revolutionaries present and future.

In the light of the day, your prayers ignite the passion of love that moves the spirits.

It is on your shoulders that I stand to fulfill my destiny;

it is within your vision that my possibilities were born.

In the collective grief of loss and injustice, may the vibration of our celebration reach the divine plane of the ancestors where you now will reside as one of the Mighty Dead.

May the peace of your manifestation fulfill your warrior spirit, and live in the hearts of those who have come behind you.

May your spirit live on through the visions of hope within others, for your work is not done, and our path is long.

And in the divine passage of your soul from this physical existence, I light this candle to illuminate the glow of hope that still lives on in your honor.

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Mitochondrial Eve, living in East Africa, is the ancestor of all living humans. Humans have changed dramatically over the generations, but our need for spirituality has not. This blog features the voices of women of African ancestry who are Pagan, and who are not what you expect. Header is Tiye, mother-in-law of Nefertiti. Photo by Frank M. Rafik.